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Slavaskii35 karma

Putting my two cents in here, I don't think it fully answers his question.

The solution provided was essentially just accepting Islam as an important, non-violent religion and moving on. Except the problem, which u/thewrestlingnord asked, was how does one do this in the face of blatantly oppressive Islamic regimes in the Middle East. It's very hard to just accept Islam as a perfectly peaceable religion when many of the countries following it are absolutely not.

TLDR; the background to the argument is well thought out, but the claim that the solution is to "just recognize that Islam isn't some barbaric religion" is, unfortunately, rather lazy and (unintentionally) continues to mask the true problems of the region.

Slavaskii25 karma

Доброе утро, спасибо большое за это вопросы-ответы!

I frequently visit Minsk and have heard troubling news about the Union State agreement which, as I understand, could be finalized as early as 2024. Yesterday I attended a conference in DC explicitly about this which discussed the large amount of influence the Kremlin is exerting upon Belarus in order to ensure this is a success.

Do you believe integration between the two nations is a likely scenario, and if so, how important will the Russian media be in this? As I understand Putin's interest in creating a 'new internet' would allow for the censoring of pro-western platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) in favor of ВК и Одноклассники, and if Belarus is 'absorbed' into this network, their chances at resistance is impossible. Is the annexation of Belarus a necessary strategic goal for Putin that you see as an inevitable way to keep him in power?

Ещё раз спасибо)

Slavaskii9 karma

Very interesting, thank you!